An Acquaintance That Changed My Life

It was a Wednesday, I think. My train to Bangalore was scheduled to be at 3 pm. Pune had greeted me well for a week, and it was finally time to get back to college. I was travelling alone, along with a suitcase and a backpack. It was more crowded than I expected, and I found it a little hard to find my seat due to the crammed train carriage. Unlike the composure that one experiences while boarding an aeroplane, getting on a train was circumstantially more challenging. The train departed, and I was on the window seat since I decided to trade a boy’s seat, only because he wanted to sleep on the upper-most berth. I was actually acrophobic. It was the usual tiresome journey until the train stopped for a remarkably long time at a station.

Everyone was asleep as it was 2 in the night when a young girl came into our compartment and occupied the little space left at the end of my berth. I woke up astounded because at first, I thought she’s probably a thief who had come to steal one of the suitcases placed below our seats. Well, I couldn’t sleep after her arrival since I decided to secretly scrutinise her actions. Sooner than I knew, morning had arrived, and the girl remained seated at the end of my berth. I didn’t perturb to confront her about getting her off the seat. She looked bruised like she was beaten up and lost. It wasn’t long when everyone woke up, and the passengers filled the berth. She was then asked to shift elsewhere. She abruptly left.

I knew she didn’t acquire a ticket, so I confronted her as she was sitting near the restroom with the other passengers who didn’t possess a ticket either. Her name was Sumana. She initially lied about the age of 20. But on recurrent encounters, she finally told me she was only 14 and had escaped from her husband. He would physically and sexually torture her to a point where her face was swollen and bruised. I was still a Psychology student and hadn’t started practising counselling yet, but I was astonished to hear her story. I wanted to help her but didn’t know how because I was merely 18. She confessed that she neither possessed a ticket nor was aware of where the train was heading.

By that afternoon, we had a flowing conversation as I offered to help her as soon as we reached Bangalore. She was only 14, and it broke my heart to see her go through so much. The conversation kept flowing well until she disclosed her family history, which was revolting and also was inconceivable. “My father used to take me into his bedroom at nights and put his towel in my mouth if I would scream. I told my mother about this several times, but she would only beat me. They got me married to a 35-year-old man who had lost his wife due to a village fire. He has 2 children, but he would beat me if I tried rebelling or running away.”

We reached Bangalore, and I was determined to take her home to my mother. My mother and I decided to admit her to an NGO where people would look after her. Two years later, one morning, on my way to college on a local bus, a girl waved out to me and called my name. I looked back to see her indignantly, and there she was. My eyes lit up. Sumana had grown up into such a beautiful girl, as she wore her school dress and carried a backpack. She said she was preparing for her 10^th-grade board exams, and the sound of it gave me such immense joy and absolute contentment in my heart. Even though I never saw her again, I was and am more than at peace with myself for rescuing her from the shackles of societal pressure. Sumana changed my life in a way that I made Psychology and Counselling my career path.

There are several Sumanas in our country today, and there are not enough people to rescue them. I know this encounter could have ended on the worst terms, but you would never know if you didn’t try. We have always been overcautious about how strangers can be our worst nightmares. Still, in the process of worrying about our safety, we sometimes refuse to lend a helping hand to someone who just might need rescuing. I took back so much from Sumana’s life that I now have more respect for everyone and everything around me.